In 2012, with my then 9-year-old daughter and a friend, we attempted to find a geocache in the park behind our house. We failed at that attempt. Over 6 years later, I was re-introduced to Geocaching by C3GPS, the father of one of my daughter’s high school friends. I remember finding four that day and ending the excursion with ice cream. At that point, my interest was piqued and after a few more finds and happy hour events, I realized this was becoming a passion of mine. Since then I have hit the ground running, reaching 1,000 finds in just over 10 months and finding caches 450 straight days and counting. When C3GPS is not continuing to mentor me, one will find me caching with wife, Uga_Mom and the muggle child who gave me my cache name as she always says I have cooties. Others also know me for my picture taking (including selfies), uncomfortably long hugs, love of ice cream/frozen custard and being an introvert.

Born & raised in St Louis, I was first introduced to geocaching in 2007 through Boy Scouts when my troop, Troop 821, ran through the Whitecliff Cache Course with our Garmin eTrex Legends. Enthralled by the act of putting coordinates into a GPSr and hunting something down I signed up and bought my own eTrex . I was 12 at the time which is where the 12 in my username comes from. Between being reliant on others for transportation, working towards my Eagle Scout, & schoolwork, it was a slow go and I only reached about 400 before heading off to college in Rolla. Studies kept me busy and I didnt have a single find for 575 days straight between August 2014 & February 2016. After graduating in 2017 with a BS in Computer Engineering & finding work, I had time to get back into Geocaching especially now that I could drive myself. Also finally got involved socially with SLAGA which really motivated me to get out there and cache! Currently working on a find streak of 2,000+ days. Adventure Awaits!

My wife (Dawn) and I were introduced to geocaching by my sister and brother-in-law in 2006. We only found 195 caches between 2006 and 2011 when the kids started to get busy with their own activities and we quit caching. Then in 2023, during a conversation with my sister and brother-in-law about the Going Caching mega event that they held every year, I mentioned that I was not even sure that our GPS unit still worked or even where it was. This is when they informed us that you can now use an app on your phone. That was it, we were back into caching. We have found 1,180 additional caches since starting back up. We have found caches in 24 states and 3 countries. We will hit a few new states and another country very soon. We are currently working on trying to find all the caches inside the 270 loop.

In the summer of 2012, my family vacationed in Berlin, Germany. My older sister (kusunflower) asked if I’d be interested in looking for a geocache that was within walking distance of our hotel. I was pleased that I actually made the find. We picked up a few other caches on that trip. For the next several years, whenever my sister and I were on vacation together (about once a year) I picked up 2-5 caches. In 2019, about a year after I retired from a busy pediatric practice, the Mystery at the Museum challenge caught my interest. I’ve gradually upped my game each year since then. I love finding birthday caches and I generally search for ones that are nearby, then grab other caches in the area. I started out as a solo cacher, but soon started caching weekly with Team DLADL. After attending some events, I’ve been fortunate to have met a number of people with whom I’ve enjoyed caching both at home and on the road

Back in 2014 St. Louis celebrated its 250th birthday by placing more than 250 4’ tall fiberglass cakes decorated by local artists all around the area. Cindy and I traveled around to see all of them, exploring and recording our visits in their app. After that year we were looking for something else to do together to continue our area explorations. I had recently taken a class in this odd thing called geocaching at Trout Lodge . It was fun so after that cake year, in early 2015. I found my first cache close to home with a Garmin Nuvi car GPS but quickly switched to using Cindy’s smartphone. I eventually got my own smartphone and a GPS, which helps on the long hikes in the wilderness I like to take. One of my favorite cache adventures was a 5/5 which involve solving a two stage cypher and then hiking a 6.5 mile, two stage multi up the ski slopes of Copper Mountain, CO at 12,000 feet. Keep on caching and savor the journey.